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People first: Public safety in the digital age

Public safety agencies that embrace digital will put people first.

Overview

The Accenture Technology Vision 2016

More than 80 percent of our public service leaders anticipate that the pace of technology change will increase rapidly over the next three years. As these technology advancements dramatically disrupt the workforce, public safety agencies that put people first—equipping employees, partners and citizens with new skills—can fully capitalise on these innovations.

The Accenture Technology Vision 2016 identifies five technology trends, fuelled by the people first principle, that are vital to operational success. How will they shape the future of Public Safety?

Intelligent
Automation

The essential new co-worker
for the digital age

Liquid
Workforce

Building the workforce for
today's digital demands

Platform
Economy

Technology-driven
business model innovation
from the outside in

Predictable
Disruption

Looking to digital
ecosystems for the next
wave of change

Digital
Trust

Strengthening customer
relationships through
ethics and security

Trend 1

Intelligent AutomationThe essential new co-worker for the digital age

Powered by artificial intelligence, the next wave of intelligent
automation solutions will gather unprecedented amounts of data from
disparate systems and by weaving people, systems and data together
create solutions that fundamentally change the organisation.

These solutions will provide greater support for traditional operational
processes like case and intelligence management. The automation of
analysis from predictive solutions through to video analytics will
removing much of the manual effort, as well as streamlining case
processing, whilst continuing to help to support public safety
personnel make critical decisions.

Policing relies on the expertise of its officers but intelligent automation
will be essential to support public safety decision making in a Digital
world of ever expanding complex datasets. In the future intelligent
processing has the potential to remove much of the burden of
common police processes and analytics could revolutionise
information management within public safety agencies.

Trend 2

Liquid WorkforceBuilding the workforce for today’s digital demands

Public safety agencies need to empower their workforces to respond to continually evolving crime types, such as cybercrime and fraud, and the operational impacts of increasingly complex shifts in societal threats. The “war for talent” will affect every sector and agencies need to consider how their traditional recruitment, rank and incentive structure should adapt to fulfil demand.

New skills to support the changes digital technologies bring will be needed including skills to build and operate digital crowd solving platforms, operating drones, or analyzing digital evidence from citizens to skills to create digital community engagement platforms.

Citizen involvement will continue to be a fundamental component of how public safety agencies tackle crime and police communities as part of a public safety liquid workforce.

IDC predicts that by 2017 more than 50 percent of government cybersecurity professionals will be contractors as the demand for cybersecurity experts will outstrip the available supply.

Ninety-six percent of citizens said they expect to play a role in police services in a recent survey.

Trend 3

The Platform EconomyTechnology-driven business model innovation from the outside in

A platform model is a technology enabled way of connecting different stakeholders and partners including citizens, the police and the judiciary. These adaptable, scalable and interconnected platforms will help drive innovation and disruptive collaboration.

This use of “digital” platforms will mean providing a tighter integration of technologies of all types, including case and intelligence systems, facial recognition, mobility, drones and sensors to create a unified way of capturing, analyzing and sharing data of all types to enable it to inform real-time decision making and deliver public safety outcomes.

Seventy-five percent of public service respondents to our survey believe platforms will be the “glue” that brings organizations together in the digital economy.

Organisations such as Europol have the ability to offer collaborative and integrated platforms to not only exchange but analyse and exploit data for Law Enforcement.

Trend 4

Predictable DisruptionLooking to digital ecosystems for the next wave of change

Digitalization is opening up many new information channels. Data sources such as social media, drones, body-worn cameras and connected devices mean information is not only increasingly accessible but has the potential to overwhelm public safety agencies, it is critical that public safety agencies understand and tap into this growing digital ecosystem.

We are already witnessing the rise of “smart cities” where sensors and connected devices provide volumes of information. The rise of “living services” where advanced analytics and cognitive learning interaction with connected devices move to automated services predicting a user's needs. Public safety agencies must understand their role within these environments and how best to benefit from them.

"Our collaboration with Accenture in the field of big data analytics will contribute toward a deeper understanding of our public safety landscape and increase our ability to anticipate and respond better to public safety incidents and crises as they occur."

Anselm Lopez

Director, Capabilities Developmentand International Partnerships at Ministry of Home AffairsSingapore

Trend 5

As the growing number of digital channels increases the demand and ability to access and process sensitive data, public safety agencies need to carefully consider how to handle and secure this data to retain citizens trust. Operational activities across a range of public safety services are being affected—from ePassports and biometrics to bodyworn cameras and drones. Public safety agencies need the ability to access and exploit digital data—but must continue to protect it and prove the legitimacy of its use, with commitment to the highest ethical standards.

To gain the trust of citizens and maintain levels of openness and transparency, public safety agencies must consider innovative practices—from the publication of digital crime data, to deploying citizen focused technologies to interact with individuals in real time. Whilst developing and upholding clear and open policies to guide their operations in the Digital world.

62% of surveyed citizens are prepared to share information in return for security.

Accenture Public Safety

Ready to thrive in a digital world?

New digital technologies and evidence-based policing practices demand flexibility. Public Safety leaders must be ready to embrace digital connectivity to manage the challenge of transformation. Technology is the driver but people are the true force of change. To transform your organization, you need a partner, one who brings you new and innovative ideas every day and the broadest range of capabilities. Drawing on a global network of deep industry knowledge and valuable insights we help police forces, intelligence agencies and justice departments harness innovation to tackle even the most complex issues.

Discover further insights based on a track record of global experience in delivering business transformation in the public safety industry.

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